WORLDLY WISDOM of 
LORD CHESTERFIELD 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

Being Extracts from the Letters of the Earl 
of Chesterfield to His Son 

Selected and Illustrated by W. I. SHEPPJRD 




R . H . R ' U S S E L L 
New York M d c c c x c i x 






<\> 












Copyright, l8gg 

By R. H. Russell 







THE WORLDLY WISDOM OF 
PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE 
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

LORD CHESTERFIELD was born in Septem- 
ber, 1694. His father disliked him and the son 
was brought up by his grandmother, the Marchioness 
of Halifax, a good and accomplished woman, who 
undoubtedly formed his tastes, and helped to form 
his morals. These, according to the statements of some 
of his contemporaries, were not as bad as the noble lord 
made them appear. They were asserted to be creatures 
of his imagination, given as matters of fact and used as 
warnings to his son; on whom, as is well known, 
warnings and precepts were alike thrown away. 
With frank egotism, the Earl says of himself: "At the 
University I was an absolute pedant. When I would 
be facetious I quoted Martial; when I talked my best 
I imitated Horace; and when I aimed to be a line 
gentleman 1 quoted Ovid. I was insolent, a great talker, 

7 



EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 

proud and peremptory.' ' He also remarks that he was 
a great spendthrift in the matter of powder and gloves. 
So much his Lordship says of himself as to his foibles. 
One of his contemporaries has said of him, on his ap- 
pearance in Parliament before the legal age: "He is 
witty by nature, sometimes delightful, often severe; 
the wonder of his companions." His ambition was to 
excel in oratory and, according to Horace Walpole, 
it must have been gratified. He says, in a letter to Sir 
Horace Mann, that the finest speech he had ever heard 
was from Chesterfield. Sir Horace avers this after the 
statement that he had listened to all the orators of re- 
pute in his day. In many places in his writings Lord 
Chesterfield insists on the value of this accomplish- 
ment, for so he literally considered it and not essen- 
tially a gift of nature. 

Diplomacy was especially attractive to him, and being 
twice Ambassador to Holland he thus had excellent 
opportunities for the exercise of his favorite metier. In 
this, Sir Watkins Winn — who was no friend — says of 
him, using Clarendon's dictum about another person, 
'"He has a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and 
a hand to execute any worthy action." So, it will be 
seen, Earl Chesterfield held a very high place in the 
estimation of litterateurs and politicians. But better 
things may be said to his credit. In an age when 
such things were rare, he had the humanity and 

8 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

courage to go against his colleagues in Parliament, 
and against public sentiment in urging a humane policy 
towards the Scotch Highlanders, lately in revolt for 
the Pretender, and to advocate the establishment of 
schools and other civilizing expedients among them. 
The tact, sagacity and humanity shown in his official 
career in Ireland were warmly commended at the 
time by Irishmen of distinction. 
But the noble Earl's fate has been that of many who 
had the praise of their contemporaries. He has almost 
dropped out of the ken of the modern reader, so that 
of his writings it may be said, as he himself might 
have remarked of others in similar plight, "Poblie vaut 
le nouveau" — for he was as facile in French as in 
English. 

The portion of his writings that held place the longest 
were the letters to his son. Of these Doctor Samuel 
Johnson said that if certain objectionable features could 
be left out, he would wish to see them in the hands 
of every young man. It hardly needs being said that 
the Doctor's prescriptions have been followed in these 
selections. 

This son was the issue of an alliance with a French- 
woman sometime previous to Lord Chesterfield's 
regular marriage in 1733 to Melusina de Schulemberg, 
the reputed niece of the Duchess of Kent. 
The son reaped nothing from the painstaking sowing 

9 



EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 

of the father, but sank into excesses and obscurity. 
The letters were first published in I 774 by his widow. 
Various opinions have been expressed of Philip Dor- 
mer Stanhope and his writings, both by contemporaries 
and moderns. They are mostly damnatory, more es- 
pecially of the man. 

In reviewing his own career he said: "Call it vanity 
if you will, and possibly it was so, but my great ob- 
ject was to make every man I met like me, and every 
woman love me. I often succeeded, but why? By 
taking great pains.' ' Probably the difficulty was that 
this was too apparent. 

An admirable custom of his was never to let late hours 
or*, dissipation interfere with his serious studies. 
For forty years, he said, however late he went to bed, 
he was always up before nine o'clock in the morning, 
commonly before eight. 

Lord Chesterfield was not so successful or brilliant in 
aphoristic composition as La Rochefoucauld, or so per- 
sistently cynical. The fact that the mordant sentences 
of the Frenchman are more familiar to English- 
speaking people than the aphorisms of the Englishman, 
is easily accounted for. The latter are only to be 
found on the perusal of the whole body of writings 
by the Earl, a task which the general reader would 
hardly undertake. 

It was eminently characteristic of the man that the 

10 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

last words he uttered should be ceremonious. "Give 
Dayrolles a chair/ ' he said, faintly, when that friend 
called to inquire how his lordship did that morning. 




51 




WORLDLY WISDOM 



NEXT to doing the things that deserve to be 
written, there is nothing that gets a man more 
credit, and gives him more pleasure, than to write the 
things that deserve to be read. 



ii. 

GREAT Talents are above the generality of the 
world, who neither possess them themselves, 
nor judge of them rightly in others: but all People 
are Judges of the lesser talents, such as Civility, 
Affability, and an agreeable Address and Manner, 
in. 

I HARDLY know anything so difficult to attain, 
or so necessary to possess, as perfect good Breed- 
ing; which is equally inconsistent with a stiff For- 
mality, an impertinent Forwardness, and an awk- 
ward Bashfulness. A little Ceremony is often neces- 
sary, a certain degree of Firmness is absolutely so. 

13 



•>. 




IV. 

DANCING in itself is a very trifling, silly thing; 
but it is one of those established Follies to 
which people of Sense are sometimes obliged to con- 
form. . . . Dress is a very foolish thing, and 
yet it is a very foolish thing for a Man not to be 
well dressed, according to his rank and way of life; 
and it is so far from being a Disparagement to any 
Man's Understanding, that it is rather a Proof of it, 
to be as well dressed as those he lives with; the Dif- 
ference in this case between a Man of sense and a 
Fop, is that a Fop values himself upon his Dress, 
and the man of Sense laughs at it: there are a thou- 
sand foolish Customs of this kind, which, not being 
criminal, must be complied with, and even cheerfully, 
by Men of Sense. Diogenes, the Cynic, was a wise 
Man for despising them, but a Fool for showing it. 
Be wiser than other People if you can, but do not 
tell them so. 

>4 




IF you can once engage People's Pride, Love, 
Pity, Ambition ... on your Side, you need 
not fear what their Reason can do against you. 



VI. 



THE Desire of pleasing is at least half the Art 
of doing it. 



VII. 



WHEN you have found out the prevailing Pas- 
sion of any Man, remember not to trust him 
where that Passion is concerned. 



VIII. 



LAZINESS, Inattention and Indifference are 
faults which are only pardonable in old men, 
who, in the Decline of Life, when Health and Spirits 
fail, have a Claim to that sort of Tranquillity. 

*5 







IX. 



HOWEVER frivolous a Company may be, still, 
when you are among them, do not show them 
by your Inattention, that you think them so. 



x. 



A MAN is fit for neither Business nor Pleasure, 
who either cannot or does not command and 
direct his Attention to the present Object, and banish 
for that time all other objects from his thoughts. 



I DO not wonder that you were surprised at the 
Credulity and Superstition at Einsiedlin (a Ger- 
man town at which Miracles were claimed to be per- 
formed). But remember, at the same time, that Errors 
and Mistakes, however gross, in Matters of Opinion, 
if they are sincere, are to be pitied, but not punished, 
nor laughed at. The Blindness of the Understanding 
is as much to be pitied a3 the Blindness of the Eye, 

16 




and there is neither Jest nor Guilt in a Man's losing 
his Way in either Case. Charity bids us to set him 
right if we can, by Argument and Persuasion; but 
Charity, at the same time, forbids either to punish or 
ridicule his Misfortune, Every Man's reason is, and 
must be, his Guide, and I may as well expect, that 
every Man should be of my size and Complexion, as 
that he should reason just as I do. Every man seeks 
for Truth, but God only knows who has found it. 
It is therefore as unjust to persecute as it is absurd 
to ridicule People for those several Opinions which 
they cannot help entertaining from convictions of 
their Reason. 



XII. 



I REALLY know nothing more criminal, more 
mean, more ridiculous, than Lying. It is the 
Production of either Malice, Cowardice or 
Vanity. 

*7 










c 

F 



XIII. 

ONCEALED Cowards will insult known 
ones. 

XIV. 

OR my own Part, I judge of every Man's Truth 
by his degree of Understanding. 



xv. 

WHAT I mean by low Company, which should 
by all means be avoided, is the Company of 
those who, absolutely insignificant and contemptible 
in themselves, think they are honored by being in 
your Company; who flatter every Vice and every 
Folly you have in order to engage you to converse 
with them. 

XVI. 

THE Scholar without good Breeding, is a Pedant; 
the Philosopher a Cynic; the Soldier a Brute; 
and every man disagreeable. 

18 



#^ 




XVII. 



THE Pride of being first of the Company is but 
too common; but it is very silly, and very pre- 
judicial. Nothing in the World lets down a Character 
more than that wrong turn. 



D 



O not tell Stories in Company; there is nothing 
more tedious and more disagreeable. 



XIX. 



R 



EMEMBER that there is a local Propriety to 
be observed in all Companies. 



xx. 



IF a Man has a mind to be thought wiser, and a 
Woman handsomer than they really are, their 
Error is a comfortable one to themselves, and an in- 
nocent one with regard to other People; and I would 
rather make them my Friends by indulging them in it, 

*9 




L* 



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than my Enemies by endeavoring (and that to no 
purpose) to undeceive them. 



XXI. 

I BELIEVE there is more Judgement required for 
proper Conduct of our Virtues, than for avoiding 
their opposite Vices. 

XXII. 

THOSE who travel heedlessly from place to 
place, observing only their distance from each 
other, and attending only to their accommodation at 
the Inn at night, set out Fools, and will certainly re- 
turn so. 

XXIII. 

TRUE Friendship requires certain Proportions of 
Age and Manners, and can never subsist where 
they are extremely different, except in the relation of 
Parent and Child. 

20 




XXIV. 



N 



EVER seem wiser, or more learned than the 
People you are with. 



A COMMON Topic for false Wit, and cold 
Raillery is Matrimony. I presume that Men and 
their Wives neither love nor hate each other more, 
upon account of the Form of Matrimony that has been, 
said over them. 

XXVI. 

THE characteristic of a well-bred Man is to con- 
verse with his inferiors without Insolence, and 
with his Superiors with respect and with Ease. He 
talks to Kings without Concern; he trifles with Women 
of the first Condition, with Familiarity and Gaiety, 
but Respect. 



XXVII, 



H 



IS Holiness is actually little more than the 
Bishop of Rome with large Temporalities, 



21 




*& 






which he is not likely to keep longer than 'till the 
other great Powers of Italy shall find their Conven- 
iency in taking them from him. (Written 1748.) 

XXVIII. 

AWKWARDNESS of Carriage is very alienating, 
and a total Negligence of Dress and Air is an 
impertinent Insult upon Custom and Fashion. 

XXIX. 

WRONGS are often forgiven, but Contempt 
never is; our Pride remembers it forever: it 
implies a discovery of Weaknesses which we are more 
careful to conceal than Crimes. 



ASPRUCENESS of Dress is very becoming at 
your Age; as the Negligence of it implies an 
Indifferency about pleasing, which does not become 
a young Fellow. 



22 




XXXI. 

THERE are two Sorts of Understandings, one 
of which hinders a man from ever being Con- 
siderable, and the other commonly makes him ridicu- 
lous, I mean the lazy Mind, and the trifling, frivo- 
lous Mind. 

XXXII. 

THINGS in the common Course of Life depend 
entirely upon the Manner; and in that respect 
the vulgar Saying is true, "That one man may better 
steal a Horse than another look over a Hedge." 
There are few things that may not be said in some 
Manner or other, either in seeming Confidence, or 
genteel Irony; or introduced with Wit; and one great 
Part of the knowledge of the World, consists in know- 
ing when and where to make use of these different 
Manners. 

23 







XXXIII. 

1 1 VE me but virtuous Actions, and I will not 
quibble and chicane about the Motives. 

XXXIV. 

AS Women are a considerable, or, at least, a 
pretty numerous Part of Company; and as their 
Suffrages go a long Way towards establishing a man's 
character in the fashionable Part of the World (which 
is of great Importance to the Fortune and Figure he 
proposes to make in it), it is necessary to please them. 



Y 



her Fan. 



XXXV. 

OU may safely flatter any Woman, from her 
Understanding down to the exquisite Ta'ste of 



XXXVI. 



w 



OMEN who are either exquisitely beautiful 
or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon 

24 



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the score of their Understandings; but those who are 
in a State of Mediocrity, are best flattered upon their 
Beauty, or at least their Graces; for every Woman 
who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome; 
but not hearing often that she is so, is the more grati- 
fied and the more obliged to the few who tell her so; 
Whereas a decided and conscious Beauty, looks to 
every Tribute paid to her Beauty as only her due; 
but wants to shine and be considered on the Side of 
her Understanding; and a Woman who is ugly enough 
to know that she is so, knows that she has nothing 
left for it but her Understanding, which is conse- 
quently (and probably in more senses than one) her 
weak side. . . . They have, from the Weakness 
of Men, more or less influence in all Courts; they 
absolutely stamp every Man's Character in the Beau 
Monde, and make it either current, or cry it down, 
and stop it in payments. 



*5 



^ 







XXXVII. 

EVERY man is not ambitious, or covetous or 
passionate, but every man has pride enough in 
his Composition to feel and resent the least Slight and 
Contempt. Remember therefore most carefully to 
conceal your, Contempt, however just, wherever you 
would not make an implacable Enemy 

XXXVIII. 

NEVER yield to that Temptation which to most 
young Men is very strong, of exposing other 
people's Weaknesses and Infirmities, for the Sake 
either of diverting the Company or of showing your 
own Superiority. 

XXXIX. 

OBSERVE any Meetings of People, and you will 
always find their Eagerness and Impetuosity 
rise or fall in Proportion to their Numbers: when 
Numbers are very great all sense of Reason seems to 

26 




subside, and one Sudden Phrenzy to seize all, even 
the coolest of them. 



XL. 



CARDINAL DE RETZ says: "that he is pur- 
suaded that, when Caligula made his Horse a 
Consul, the People of Rome at that Time were not 
greatly surprised at it, having necessarily been in some 
degree prepared for it, by an insensible gradation of 
Extravagances from the same quarter.' ' This is so 
true that we read Every Day with Astonishment, 
things which we see Every Day without surprise. We 
wonder Every Day at the Intrepidity of a Leonidas, 
a Codrus and a Curtius, and are not the least sur- 
prised to hear of a Sea Captain who has blown up his 
Ship, his Crew and Himself, that they might not fall 
into the hands of the Enemies of his Country. 



XLI. 



i 



WOULD have you dance a Minuet very well — 
not so much for the sake of the Minuet itself 

27 




(though that if danced at all ought to be danced 
well), as that it will give vou an habitual genteel car- 
riage and manner of presenting yourself. 



PRAY let no quibble of Lawyers, nor Refinements 
of Casuists break into the plain Notions of Right 
and Wrong, which Every Man's right Reason and 
plain Common Sense suggest to him. 

XLIII. 

TO do as you would be done by is the plain, sure 
and undisputed Rule of Morality and Justice. 
Stick to that, and be convinced that whatever breaks 
into it in any Degree, however speciouslv it may be 
turned, and however puzzling it may be to answer it, 
is, notwithstanding, false in itself, unjust and criminal. 

XLIV. 

GOOD Company is not what respective Sets of 
Company are pleased either to call or think 
themselves, but it is that Company which all the 

28 




People of the Place call and acknowledge to be good 
Company, notwithstanding some objections which 
they may form to some of the People who compose it. 

XLV. 

THE Company of professed Wits and Poets is 
extremely inviting to most young men, who, if 
they have Wit themselves, are pleased with it, and if 
they have none are sillily proud of being of it; but it 
should be frequented with Moderation and Judgement, 
and you should by no means give yourself up to it. 

XLVI. 

BE your character what it will, it will be known 
and nobody will take it upon your own Word. 

XLVII. 

FLIMSEY parts, little Knowledge, and less Merit, 
introduced by the Graces have been received, 
cherished and admired. Even Virtue, which is moral 
Beauty, wants some of its Charms if unaccompanied 
by them. 

29 













XLVIII. 

OF all the Men that I ever knew in my Life (and 
I knew him well), the late Duke of Marlbor- 
ough possessed the Graces in the highest Degree, not 
to say Engrossed them; and indeed, got the most by 
them; for I will venture (contrary to the Custom of 
profound Historians, who always assign deep causes 
for great events) to ascribe the better Half of the 
Duke of Marlborough's Greatness and Riches to these 
Graces. He was eminently illiterate; wrote bad Eng- 
lish and spelt it worse. He had no share of what is 
commonly called Parts; that is, he had no brightness, 
nothing shining in his Genius. He had undoubtedly 
an excellent, good, plain understanding with sound 
judgement; . . . could refuse more gracefully than 
other People could grant, and those who went away 
from him the most dissatisfied, as to the substance of 
their Business, were yet personally charmed with him, 
and in some Degree comforted by his manners. 

30 




XLIX. 

A MAN of Sense carefully avoids any particular 
Character in his Dress; he is accurately clean 
for his own Sake, but all the Rest is for other People's. 
He dresses as well, and in the same Manner as the 
People of Sense and Fashion of the Place where he is. 
If he dresses better, as he thinks, that is, more than 
they, he is a Fop ; if he dresses worse, he is un- 
pardonably negligent : but of the Two, I would rather 
have a Young Fellow too much, than too little 
dressed: the Excess on that side will wear off with a/ 
little Age and Reflection; but if he is negligent at 
Twenty, he will be slovenly at Forty, and stink at 
Fifty Years old. 

L. 

A FOOL squanders away without credit or ad- 
vantage to himself, more than a Man of Sense 
spends with both. 

31 







LI. 

UNDER the head of rational Pleasures, I compre- 
hend, first, proper Charities to real and com- 
passionate Objects of it; secondly, proper Presents to 
those to whom you are obliged; or whom you desire 
to oblige; thirdly, a Conformity of Expense to that of 
the Company which you keep. 



IN Economy, as well as in every other Part of Life 
. . . have the proper Attention to proper Ob- 
jects, and the proper Contempt for little ones. 

LIII. 

THE sure Characteristic of a sound and strong 
Mind, is to find in Everything these certain 
Bounds, "quos ultra citrave nequit consistere rectum." 
TheBoundariesaremarkedoutby a very fine Line, which 
only good sense and Attention can discover; it is much 
too fine for vulgar Eyes. In manners, this Line is good 

32 



Tl$8k 




Breeding: beyond it is troublesome Ceremony; short 
of it is unbecoming Negligence and Inattention. In 
Morals it divides ostentatious Puritanism, from criminal 
Relaxation. In Religion, Superstition from Impiety. 



LIV. 



I ASSERT (speaking of Paradise Lost) with Mr. 
Dryden, that the Devil is in Truth the Hero of 
Milton's poem; his Plan which he lays, pursues and 
at last executes, is the Subject of the Poem. 



LV. 

THE Man who cannot join Business and Pleasure, 
is either a formal Coxcomb in one, or a sen- 
sual Beast in the other. 

LVI. 

IT has been long said "qui nescit dissimulare neseit 
regnare" I will go further and say that, without 
some Dissimulation no Business can be carried on at 
all. It is Simulation that is false and mean and crim- 

33 




inal; that is the Cunning which Lord Bacon calls 
crooked or left-handed Wisdom. 

lvii. 

SOME People are to be reasoned, some flattered 
and some intimidated and some teazed into a 
thing . . . The Time should likewise be judiciously 
chosen. Every man has his Mollia Tempora, but that 
is far from being all day long; and you would choose 
your Time very ill, if you applied to a man about one 
Business, when his head is full of another, or when 
his heart was full of Grief, Anger, or any other dis- 
agreeable Sentiment. 

LVIII. 

THE Temptation of saying a smart or witty Thing 
or bon mot, and the malicious Applause with which 
it is commonly received has made more People who can 
say them, and still oftener, People who think they 
can, but cannot, yet try, more Enemies than any 
other one Thing that I know of. 

34 




LIX. 



THERE is a certain Dignity of Manners absolutely 
necessary, to make even the most valuable Char- 
acters either respected or respectable. 



LX. 



INDISCRIMINATE Familiarity either offends 
your superiors, or else dubs you their dependant 
and led Captain. It gives your Inferiors just 5 
troublesome and improper Claims of Equality. 



but 



LXI. 



WHOEVER is admitted or sought for in Com- 
pany, upon any other Account but that of 
his Merit and Manners, is never respected there, but 
only made use of. 



LXII. 



DIGNITY of Manners ... is not only differ- 
ent from Pride — as true Courage is from Blus- 
tering, and true Wit from Joking — but is absolutely 

35 




AV 




inconsistent with it; for nothing vilifies and degrades 
more than Pride. 



LXIII. 



WHOEVER is in a hurry, shows that the Thing 
that he is about to do is too big for him. 
Haste and Hurry are very different Things. 



LXIV. 



IT is of no sort of Purpose to talk to those People 
(/'. e., the adherents of the Pretender on the Con- 
tinent) of the natural Rights of Mankind, and the 
particular constitution of this Country. Blinded by 
Prejudice, soured by Misfortunes, and tempted by 
Necessities, they are incapable of reasoning rightly, as 
they are of acting wisely. The late Lord Pembroke 
would never know anything that he had not a mind 
to know; and in this Case I advise you to follow his 
Example. Never know either the Father, or the two 
sons (Charles Edward and Henry, Cardinal of York) 
otherwise than as foreigners, and so, not knowing 

36 




their Pretentions, you have no occasion to dispute 
them. 

LXV. 

APROPOS of the Pope. Remember to be pre- 
sented to him before you leave Rome, and go 
through the necessary Ceremonies for it, Even to 
Kissing the Slipper ... I would never deprive myself 
of anything I wished to do or see, by refusing to 
comply with an established Custom ... (it is) a com- 
plaisance due . . . and by no Means, as Some People 
have imagined, an implied Approbation of their 
Doctrine. Bodily Attitudes and Situations are Things 
so very indifferent in themselves, that I would quarrel 
with Nobody about them. 

LXVI. 

WITH weak People (and they are undoubtedly 
three Parts in four of Mankind) good Breeding 
and Address are everything; they can go no deeper: but 
let me assure you, they are a great deal even with 
People of the best Understandings. 

37 



LXVII. 

STYLE is the Dress of Thoughts ... it is not 
Every Understanding that can Judge of Matter, 
but Every Ear can and does judge more or less of 
style. 

LXVIII. 

ENGAGE the Eyes by your Address, Air and 
Motions; soothe the Ears by the Elegance and 
Harmony of your Diction, the Heart will certainly 
follow, and the whole Man or Woman will as certainly 
follow the Heart. 



LXIX. 



I HAVE often thought, and still think that there 
are few Things which People know less than how 
to love and how to hate. They hurt those they love 
by a mistaken Indulgence, by a Blindness, nay a Par- 
tiality to their Faults. Where they hate, they hurt 
themselves by ill-timed Passion and Rage. 

3« 




I 



LXX. 

HAVE known many a Man undone by acquiring 
a ridiculous nick-name. 

LXX1. 

IF you will please People, you must please them in 
their own Way; and, as you cannot make them 
what they should be, you must take them as they are. 

LXXII. 

THE same Matter occurs equally to Everybody of 
Common Sense, upon the same question; the 
dressing it well is what excites the Attention and Ad- 
miration of the Audience. 

LXXIII. 

I HAVE spoken frequently in Parliament, and not 
always without some Applause, and therefore I 
can assure you from my Experience, that there is very 
little in it. The Elegancy of the style, the turn of the 

39 




periods make the chief impression upon the Hearers. 
Give them but one or two sound and harmonious 
Periods in a Speech, which they will retain and re- 
peat, and they will go home as well satisfied as Peo- 
ple from an Opera, humming all the way one or two 
favourite Tunes which have struck their ears — and 
were easily caught. Many People have Ears, but few 
have Judgement; tickle those Ears, and depend upon, 
it, you will catch their Judgements, such as they are. 

LXXIV. 

WOMEN are much more like each other than 
Men. 

LXXV. 

I WOULD not advise you to depend so much on 
the heroic Virtue of Mankind, as to hope or 
believe that your competitor will ever be your friend 
as to the object of that Competition. 
lxxvi. 

GREAT Talents, and great Virtues, will procure 
you the Respect and Admiration of Mankind; 

40 




but it is the lesser Talents, the leniories virtutes which 
must procure you their Love and Affection. 

LXXVII. 

YOU should by no means seem to approve, en- 
courage or applaud those libertine Notions 
which strike at religions equally, which are poor thread- 
bare Topics of Half- Wits and minute Philosophers. 
Even those who are silly enough to laugh at their Jokes, 
are still wise enough to distrust and detest their Char- 
acters; for, putting moral virtues at their highest, and 
Religion at the lowest, Religion must still be allowed 
to be a collateral Security, at least, to Virtue; and every 
prudent man will sooner trust to two securities than 
one. 

LXXVIII. 

DEPEND upon this Truth, that every man is the 
worse looked upon and the less trusted for being 
thought to have no Religion. 

4 1 




LXXIX, 

YOUR moral Character must not only be pure, 
but like Caesar's wife, unsuspected. The least 
speck or blemish upon it is fatal. Nothing degrades and 
vilifies more, for it excites and unites Detestation and 
Contempt. There are, however, wretches in the world 
profligate enough to explode all Notions of Moral Good 
and Evil; to maintain that they are merely local and 
depend entirely upon the Customs and Fashions of 
different countries, nay, there are still, if possible, 
more unaccountable wretches; I mean those who affect 
to preach and propagate such infamous notions without 
believing them themselves. These are the Devil's 
Hypocrites. ... As you may, by accident, fall into 
such Company, take great care that no Complaisance, 
no good Humour, no warmth of festal Mirth, ever 
make you seem to acquiesce, much less to approve or 
applaud such doctrines. 




LXXX. 

THERE is one of the Vices into which People of 
good Education and, in the main, of good Prin- 
ciple, sometimes fall from mistaken notions of Skill, 
Dexterity and Self-Defense; I mean Lying; though it 
is inseparably attended with more Infamy and Loss 
than any other. The Prudence and Necessity of often 
concealing the Truth seduces people to violate it. It is 
the only Art of mean Capacities and the only Refuge 
of mean Spirits. 

LXXXI. 

DEFAMATION and Calumny never attack where 
there is no weak place; they magnify, but they 
do not create. 



LXXXII. 



T 



HERE is a sort of veteran woman of Condition 

who, having always lived in the grand monde 

with the Experience of five-and-twenty or thirty 

43 




years, forms a Young Fellow better than all the Rules 
that can be given him. . . . They will point out to 
you those Manners and Attentions that pleased and 
engaged them when they were in the Pride of their 
Youth and Beauty. Ask their Advice . . . but take 
care not to drop one word of their Experience; for 
Experience implies Age, and the Suspicion of Age no 
woman, let her be ever (su\ so old, ever forgives. 

LXXXIII. 

THE Pleasures that you would feel, you must earn; 
the man who gives himself up to all feels none 
sensibly. 

LXXX1V. 

HOSE only who Join serious Occupations with 
Pleasures feel either as thev should do. 



T 



LXXXV. 



THEY (/'. e,, the devotees to the Pleasures of 
life only) are only so many human Sacrifices 
to fake Gods. 44 




LXXXVI. 



THE little Frailties of Youth flowing from high 
Spirits and warm Blood ... certainly mend 
by Time, often by Reason; and a Man's worldly 
Character is not affected by them, provided it be pure 
in all other respects. 



M 



LXXXVII. 



ODESTY is the only sure Bait when you angle 
for Praise. 



LXXXVIII. 



SENSE must distinguish between what is impossible 
and what is only difficult; Spirit and Perseverance 
will get the better of the latter. 



LXXXIX. 



IN all Courts you must expect to meet Connections 
without Friendships, Enmities without Hatred, 
Honour without Virtue, Appearances saved and Reali- 
ties sacrificed, good Manners with bad Morals, and 

45 




^irs* 



all Vice and Virtue so disguised, that whoever has 
only reasoned upon both, would know neither when 
he first met them at Court. 

xc. 

I CAN assure you that it is no little help in the 
Beau Monde to be puffed there by a fashionable 
Woman. 

xci. 

FROM the Moment that you are dressed and go 
out, pocket all your Knowledge with your 
Watch, and never pull it out in Company unless de- 
sired: the producing of the one unasked implies that 
you are weary of the Company, and the producing 
of the other unrequired will make the Company weary 
of you. 

xcn. 

WHATEVER is done under Concern and Em- 
barrassment must be ill done; and 'till a man 
is absolutely easv and unconcerned in every Com- 

4 6 




pany, he will never be thought to have kept good, 
nor to be very welcome in it. 

XCIII. 

A MAN of Sense takes the Time for doing the 
thing that he is about well: and his Haste to 
dispatch a Business only appears by the continuity of 
his application to it. 

xciv. 

WE are so made we love to be pleased better 
than to be informed; Information is to a cer- 
tain degree mortifying, as it implies our previous 
Ignorance: it must be sweetened to be palatable. 

xcv. 

I REMEMBER that when I came from Cam- 
bridge, I had acquired amongst the Pedants of 
that illiberal Seminary, a Sauciness of Literature, a 
Turn to Satire and Contempt, and a strong Tendency 
to Argumentation and Contradiction. But I had been 

47 






very little in the World when I found out that this 
would by no means do; and I immediately adopted 
the opposite Character: I concealed what Learning I 
had, I applauded often without approving; and I 
yielded commonly without Conviction. 

xcvi. 

FEW People have Penetration enough to discover, 
Attention enough to observe, or even Concern 
enough to examine, beyond the Exterior; they take 
their Motives from the surface and go no deeper. 

xcvn. 

HAPPY the Man who, with a certain Fund of 
Parts and Knowledge, gets acquainted with the 
World Early enough to make it his Bubble. 



u 



icviii. 
SE Paliatives when vou contradict. 



48 




XCIX. 



SOYEZ convaincu que la Femme la plus sage se 
trouve flattee, bein loni d'etre offensee par une 
Declaration d* Am our fake avec Politesse et Agre- 
ment. 

c. 

I ALWAYS treat Fools and Coxcombs with great- 
Ceremony; true good Breeding not being a suffi- 
cient Barrier against them. 
ci. 

KNOWLEDGE of the World teaches us more 
particularly two Things, both of which are of 
equal Consequence, and to neither of which Nature 
inclines us; I mean the command of our Temper, and 
of our countenance. 

en. 

IT is a Shame and an Absurdity for any Man 
to say that he cannot do all of those things that 
are commonly done by the Rest of Mankind. 

49 




cm. 

PEOPLE seldom know how to employ their time 
to the best Advantage until they have too little 
left to employ. 

civ. 

A YOUNG Fellow ought to be wiser than he 
should seem to be; and an old Fellow ought to 
seem wise whether he is so or not. 
cv. 

A FOREIGN Minister, I will maintain it, can 
never be a good Man of Business, if he is not 
an agreeable Man of Pleasure, too. 
cvi. 

ALL Acts of Civility are by Common Consent 
understood to be no more than a Conformity to 
custom for the quiet and conveniency of Society, the 
agrements of which are not to be disturbed by private 
dislikes and jealousies. 




CVII. 

I PROFESS myself an Ally of Turnus's against the 
pious ^Eneas, who, like many soi-disant pious 
People, does the most Flagrant Injustice and Violence 
in order to execute what they impudently call the Will 
of Heaven. 

CVIII. 

YOUNG Men are apt to think themselves wise 
enough, as drunken Men are apt to think them- 
selves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be much 
better than Experience. I mean here by Spirit of 
Youth only the Vivacity and Presumption of Youth, 
which hinder them from seeing the Difficulties or 
Danger of an Undertaking. 

cix. 

A WELL-BRED Man seldom thinks, and never 
seems to think, himself slighted or undervalued 
or laughed at in Company, unless where it is so plainly 
marked out that his Honour obliges him to resent it in 
a proper Manner. 

5* 




A 



CX. 

SEEMING Ignorance is very often a most neces- 
sary part of worldly Knowledge. 

CXI. 

ISH for Facts, and take Pains to be well informed 
of everything that passes; but fish judiciously. 



A PROPER Secrecy is the only Mystery of able 
Men; Mystery is the only Secrecy of Weak 
and Cunning Ones. 

cxin. 

DISTRUST those who love you extremely and 
upon a very slight Acquaintance and with out \ is- 
ible Reason. Be on your guard, too, against those who 
confess as their Weaknesses all the Cardinal Virtues. 



WHEN a Man of Sense finds himself in that Situ- 
ation in which he is obliged to ask himself more 
than once, "What shall I do?" when his reason 

52 




points out to him no good way, or at least no one 
way less bad than another, he will stop short and 
wait for Light. A little busy mind runs on at all Events; 
must be doing, and, like a blind horse, fears no danger 
because he sees none. II f ant sc avoir s'ennuyer. 



A 

Rank. 



DIFFERENCE of Opinion, though in merest 
Trifles, alienates little Minds, especially of high 



CXVI. 



A MAN'S good Breeding is his best Security 
against other Peoples' ill Manners. 

CXVII. 

T%^*OST Arts require long study and application; 
JLVX but the most useful of all, that of pleasing, re- 
quires only the desire. 

cxvm. 

A SKILLFUL Negociator will most carefully dis- 
tinguish between the little and the great objects 

53 




of his Business; and will be as frank and open in the 
former, as he will be secret and pertinacious in the 
latter. 

cxix. 

THE preposterous Notions of a systematical Man 
who does not know the World, tire the Patience 
of a Man who does. 

cxx. 

I AM not only persuaded by Theory, but convinced 
by my experience, that (supposing a certain De- 
gree of Common Sense) what is called a good Speaker 
is as much a Mechanic as a good Shoemaker; and that 
the two trades are equally to be learned by the same 
Degree of Application. 



STATESMEN and Beauties are very rarely sensi- 
ble of the gradations of their Decay, and, too 
sanguinely hoping to shine in their Meridian, often 
set with Contempt and Ridicule. 

54 




CXXII. 

I LOOK upon Indolence as a sort of Suicide; for 
the Man is effectually destroyed, though the ap- 
petites of the Brute may survive. 

CXXIII. 

BUSINESS by no Means forbids Pleasures; on the 
contrary they reciprocally season each other, I 
will venture to affirm that no Man enjoys either in 
Perfection that does not join in both. 

cxxiv. 
PERSEVERANCE has surprising effects. 

cxxv. 

LET us, then, not only scatter Benefits, but even 
strew flowers for our fellow Travellers, in the 
rugged Ways of this wretched World. 
cxxvi. 

A CERTAIN Degree of Ceremony is a necessary 
outwork of Manners as well as of Religion. It 



LofC. 



55 



&/ 





keeps the forward and the petulant at a proper Distance, 
and is a very small Restraint to the sensible and well- 
bred part of the World. 



cxxvn. 



A 



WISE Man will live at least as much within his 
Wit as his Income. 



CXXVIJI. 



VANITY is the more odious and shocking to 
Everybody, because Everybody, without excep- 
tion, has Vanity; and two Vanities can never love 
one another any more than two of a Trade can. 



CXXIX. 



THERE are but two Objects in Marriage, Love 
and Money. If you marry for Love you will 
certainly have some very happy Days, and probably 
many very uneasy ones; if for Money, you will have 
no happv davs, and probablv no uneasv ones. 

56 




cxxx. 

GIVE nobly to indigent Merit and do not refuse 
your Charity, even to those who have no Merit 
but their Misery. 

CXXXI. 

THE Manner makes the whole Difference. What 
would be Impudence in one Man is only a 
proper and decent Assurance in Another. A Man of 
Sense and Knowledge of the World will assert his own 
rights and pursue his own Objects, as steadily and in- 
trepidly as the most Impudent Man Living, and com- 
monly more so, but then he has art enough to give an 
outward Air of Modesty to all he does, 
cxxxn. 

WHEN they (young men) come to be a little 
better acquainted with themselves, and with 
their own Species, they discover that plain right Rea- 
son is nine times in ten, the fettered and shackled At- 
tendant of the Triumph of the Heart and Passions; 

57 







consequently they addressed themselves nine times in 
ten, to the Conqueror and not to the Conquered. 

CXXXIII. 

A MAN who is really diffident, timid and bashful, 
be his Merit what it will, never can push him- 
self in the world; his Despondency throws him into 
inaction; and the Forward, the Bustling and the Petu- 
lant will always get the better of him. 



cxxxiv. 



A 



MAN who tells nothing, or who tells all, will 
equally have nothing told him. 



/Pv^SfT^N 




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022 009 201 A 



